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To: Oak Tree who wrote (30)	9/20/2000 9:32:12 PM
From: John R Resseger	Respond to of 33

Tsure is cheap! Tsnow tout west I hear. Marker's non-unionized workforce consists of approximately 344 full-time employees and 19 part-time employees. Of these, 229 employees are involved in production, 61 in selling, 13 in warehousing and shipping, 47 in general administration, and 13 in research and development. To meet the Company's goal of returning to profitability, generating an operating profit margin of at least 12%, and growing the Company through strategic partnerships in the winter sports business and brand licensing, Mr. Weaver has communicated the following strategic imperatives: - Renewed emphasis on alpine ski bindings as the core business. - Maintaining Marker's position as the technological leader in alpine bindings. - Operational planning and control will be shifted to the Company's manufacturing and product development facilities in Eschenlohe, Germany. Marker Germany will assume centralized planning authority as a means of assuring integral linkage among global forecasts, demand, production and inventory management. - Marker International will function only as a holding company to account for group activities. - The apparel business (previously operated as Marker Ltd.) has been licensed to and financed by third parties, with a buy back provision included in the licensing agreement. OPERATIONAL DIRECTIVES Going forward, Marker intends to operate under the following assumptions: - Pricing to be established by local subsidiaries or distributors based upon competitive factors at price points in each market. - Maintenance of market share levels will not be at the expense of supporting reasonable operating margins. - Aggressive reorganization of the German assembly operations to match industry demand requirements and increase plant efficiency. The recent automation of the heel assembly process has yielded substantial efficiencies and the toe assembly process has been targeted as the next area for improvement. A highly reputed independent German consulting group has been hired to lead the production reorganization initiative. Annual cost savings after investment have been estimated at $6.3 million and will reach full run rate by fiscal year 2003. - Production levels will be continuously monitored against actual sales, to maximize flexibility in maintaining reasonable minimal inventory levels. - Overhead and operating expenses will be reduced to levels commensurate with projected sales levels and target profitability. - R&D expenditures will be maintained at current levels (2.8% of sales). - Intercompany charges will be utilized only for product transfer in the ordinary course of business and fee payments. - Potential inventory obsolescence to be covered by establishing and maintaining prudent inventory reserves.